How we have developed the Policy

In the development of this policy, the Board of Housing New Zealand identified early on that comprehensive, genuine engagement is essential to inform the approach and outcome of this first phase of our policy journey towards housing accessibility.

The Policy is informed by:

• examining existing research undertaken internally within Housing New Zealand;
• a literature review of international guidance and best practice;
• a data research initiative in conjunction with Statistics New Zealand;
• a comprehensive consultation process with key internal and external stakeholders
• the views, ideas, insights and lived experiences of our tenants, their families/whānau and the communities they live in.

In developing this policy, Housing New Zealand has looked at the different areas of our business to see how our commitment to accessibility fits with each of these areas. Some areas fit within this accessibility policy. Housing New Zealand will focus on other areas of our business outside this policy, and keep the different areas connected.

In scope of this policy

• Working with our Customer Programme to better understand our customers’ needs.
• Housing New Zealand’s new builds: Housing New Zealand’s new build standards, and the standardised designs for our newly-built properties across our different property types now and in the future.
• Housing New Zealand’s existing properties: the ability to target and apply specific accessibility features to some or all of our existing properties over time; that is, to modify our properties appropriately.
• Housing New Zealand’s purpose-built accessible properties: including specialised accessibility modifications tailored to broad classes of impairment, and individual occupants, with access to specialised wrap-around support services co-located at site, or provided in close proximity.
• Housing New Zealand’s relationship with funders of modifications: working closely with other agencies to improve the efficiency of how our customers can access funding.

Out of scope of this policy

• Housing New Zealand’s accessible workplace policy. Accessible access for our people, customers and other visitors to our offices will be covered separately in other policies as part of our internal processes.
• Housing New Zealand’s disability policy. A Human Resources focus on disability, as well as training for our people, will be covered separately in other policies as part of our internal processes.
• Housing New Zealand’s communications with our tenants. Our relationships and interactions with our tenants and the accessibility of information, such as in tenancy agreements, letters, and on Housing New Zealand’s external website will be addressed through other communications projects and initiatives.
  • Along with other Government entities, Housing New Zealand is a signatory to the Accessibility Charter, which sets out a commitment to work “…towards ensuring that all information intended for the public is accessible to everyone and that everyone can interact with our services in a way that meets their individual needs and promotes their independence and dignity”.[i] Some examples of this work include:
    • Designing all current and future Housing New Zealand publications, for example our Close 2 Home newsletter, our Annual Report, in an accessible format (font size, use of colours)
    • Producing all videos with closed captioning for those who are hard of hearing and part of the Deaf community
    • Making sure our public website meets full accessibility guidelines for visually impaired readers (font size, use of colour), and is compatible with screen reader technology.
    • Using NZ Relay services for our customers using our 0800 numbers who may be Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired.
  • Design standards for Housing New Zealand’s affordable (including KiwiBuild) and market housing. In the lead up to the establishment of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, comprising Housing New Zealand, HLC and the KiwiBuild Unit, work is being done on appropriate building standards for affordable and market housing. This work will be directed by the extent to which there should be common standards across all Government new supply of homes. There will also be a focus on how Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, with its increased scale and wider focus on urban development, can improve access through better urban design and procurement.
  • Our Customer Programme, which is taking the high-level objectives in our Customer Strategy and turning them into tools, knowledge, information and skills to help our customers. The Customer Programme is considering a new Tenancy Operating Model including how to improve processes for finding the right homes for people and for collecting information initially and during the tenancy, and how our operating model can be best designed to meet the needs of different customer groups, including the disabled. We will work closely with the Customer Programme team as we implement this Accessibility Policy.
  • Ministry of Social Development’s processes for assessing eligibility for public housing (the Social Allocation System) and Housing New Zealand’s processes for matching eligible applicants to properties. There is an important relationship between placement and asset decision-making.

[i] Ministry for Social Development. The Accessibility Charter. Retrieved from: https://www.odi.govt.nz/guidance-and-resources/the-accessibility-charter/ (6 September 2019)